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Texas A&M has landed its first defensive lineman for the 2025 recruiting class, picking up the commitment of Cy-Fair 4-star Landon Rink Wednesday morning.
Rink, a Texas legacy, was thought to be leaning their direction until the arrival of Mike Elko at A&M. Rink was one of the first players Elko visited once taking over the A&M program, and coaches Tony Jerod-Eddie and Sean Spencer picked up the intensity when they were hired.
Eventually, Rink took a more serious look at Penn State, Oklahoma and USC, but took several trips up to College Station in the process. By the time he took his final trip last weekend, he knew where he wanted to go.
Rink is the fifth commit for the 2025 class and the fourth 4-star. He's the third commit from the Houston area, with the remaining two coming from Dallas/Fort Worth.
An All-District selection the past two years, Rink had 70 tackles and 15 sacks in 2023.
Analysis of A&M's newest commit
Rink brings flexibility to the table. He has the size to be an interior lineman in a 4-2-5 like A&M runs, but is comfortable playing outside as he's done both at Cy-Fair. Rivals lists him as a strongside defensive end, but I think his future is on the interior.
For a guy that's already 280 pounds, Rink can really move. He's not a guy who blows you away with his first step, but he still gets up to top speed fast and he's more than a match for high school defensive linemen. There's nothing subtle about his game: he's coming right at you and you can stop him if you can. Most can't.
Rink has an outstanding football frame and he's already very strong. You can see him shove aside double teams as he barrels into the offensive backfield. One-on-one, he's usually going to overwhelm the opposing offensive lineman. It's amusing to see some of these big interior linemen come off the snap, hit Rink in the chest as hard as they can...and he doesn't even move. That has to be dispiriting for a lineman.
Rink is already big. He'll get bigger. He's strong. He'll get stronger. For a lineman, he's fast, and hopefully he'll retain that speed. He needs to work on keeping his pad level low, because SEC linemen are several cuts above the regular 6A linemen. He also needs to develop some secondary moves because right now, he's a straight, in-you-face bull rusher.
But all that stuff is secondary. The Aggies got a guy who has tremendous athletic ability and will have time to refine his game before he hits the field. This is another really nice pickup for Elko, Jerod-Eddie and Spencer.
